????最近，對沖基金經(jīng)理人、億萬富豪里昂?庫伯曼發(fā)表了一份公開信，抱怨奧巴馬總統(tǒng)對富人太過苛刻。億萬富豪大倒階級斗爭苦水？多么悲劇?。∽髡咄旭R斯?弗蘭克或許很不以為然。難怪蕓蕓眾生對華盛頓身居高位的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人深感不滿，而且不再只是停留在語言層面。因?yàn)?，正是在華盛頓諸公的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下，美國的收入不均現(xiàn)象二十年來日益嚴(yán)重，失業(yè)率居高不下，而房地產(chǎn)市場更是亂得一塌糊涂。

????弗蘭克的新書《可憐的億萬富豪》（Pity the Billionaire）就透著這股怨氣，探究了共和黨人卷土重來的背后力量。弗蘭克稱，大蕭條以來最嚴(yán)重的金融危機(jī)剛剛過去一年，茶黨運(yùn)動就強(qiáng)調(diào)經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇依賴于自由市場理念的重生，并借此綁架了公眾的憤怒情緒。這一策略確實(shí)奏效了。如今，金融改革幾乎沒有觸及華爾街的利益，稅率也沒有上調(diào)，盡管失業(yè)率高企而消費(fèi)需求疲軟，美國企業(yè)界仍然賺得盆滿缽溢。

????“新奇的是，”弗蘭克指出，“值此自由市場理論證明自己不過是一種帶來災(zāi)禍與欺詐的哲學(xué)之際，它反而得到了贊頌。”這正是弗蘭克不滿之情的核心：奧巴馬任期剛剛開始一個(gè)月，主要由私營部門的貪婪引發(fā)的經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)還相當(dāng)嚴(yán)重，可保守陣營已經(jīng)宣稱，整個(gè)亂象都是政府的錯(cuò)，還籍此出盡了風(fēng)頭。

????2009年初，美國消費(fèi)者新聞與商業(yè)頻道（CNBC）記者里克?桑塔里站在芝加哥期貨交易所（CBOT）的大廳里，大肆抨擊一項(xiàng)聯(lián)邦抵押貸款調(diào)整計(jì)劃。他呼吁聚在自己周圍的交易員們成立一個(gè)芝加哥茶黨。而這些交易員是些什么人呢？弗蘭克援引了桑塔里的話：他們“直截了當(dāng)?shù)卣f……是美國很好的一個(gè)統(tǒng)計(jì)截面，是沉默的大多數(shù)?！?/p>

????這一手玩得相當(dāng)漂亮，弗蘭克指出，事實(shí)上，桑塔里將他周圍那些富裕的交易員描述成了大膽與體制相對抗的小人物?！坝乙碜プ×藱C(jī)會，重新界定了辯論的主題，”弗蘭克哀嘆道?！八麄兝谜?jì)劃，使政府代替華爾街承擔(dān)了罵名。”

????Recently, billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman published an open letter in which he complained that President Obama was being mean to rich people. A billionaire complaining about class warfare? How tragic, author Thomas Frank probably thought. Excuse the rest of the population whose gripes with Washington's leaders -- who have presided over two decades of growing income inequality, high joblessness, and an unrivaled housing mess -- extend beyond a little hurtful rhetoric.

????Such is the cranky mood of Frank's new book Pity the Billionaire, which examines the forces behind the resurgent GOP. Just a year after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, in Frank's telling, the Tea Party movement hijacked popular anger by arguing that economic salvation lay in the revival of free-market ideals. It worked. Today, financial reform has barely touched Wall Street. Taxes aren't rising. Corporate America is piling up profits despite high unemployment and weak consumer demand.

????"What is new," Frank observes, "is the glorification of this idea at the precise moment when free market theory has proven itself to be a philosophy of ruination and fraud." This is the heart of Frank's grievance: barely a month into Obama's term, in the midst of an economic crisis sparked largely by private-sector greed, conservatives stole the spotlight by arguing that the entire mess was really the fault of government.

????In early 2009, CNBC reporter Rick Santelli stood on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade in early 2009 and ranted against a federal mortgage modification program. He called on the traders surrounding him to stage a Chicago Tea Party. And who were these traders? Frank quotes Santelli: They were "pretty straightforward ... a pretty good statistical cross section of America, the silent majority."

????It took deft handling, Frank notes, but Santelli effectively presented the wealthy traders around him as little men standing up to the system. "It was the Right that grabbed the opportunity to define the debate," Frank laments, "using bailouts to shift the burden of villainy from Wall Street to government."